The sound of drills drowned out the sounds of early morning Tucson April 25 while the Teaching and Helping Program trained more than a dozen volunteers to make major energy conservation and solar upgrades to a 1950s home.

Volunteers and mentors installed a solar water heating system and a heat pump, sealed leaks in doors and ducts, insulated leaking windows and the roof, and closed and repaired a 70-square-foot access hatch in the roof.

Though he has worked on five housing projects since October and many before that, project manager Tres English said none have been of this magnitude. English and his team, which uses mentors to teach volunteers how to do different projects around the house, began working on the house two weekends before.

The mentors are paid by Pima County and the labor is free, but the homeowner pays for the materials needed. Mary Jane Schumacher, homeowner, said she is paying about $2,500 for all of the materials being used.

To be selected for the program, homeowners must contact the program and meet certain income criteria.

Schumacher has lived in the house for 19 years and felt it was time to make some changes.

“It makes more sense with energy being as expensive as it is,” she said. “It is a great feeling to know you are doing your part. Every little bit counts.”

Volunteers and mentors replaced two windows with double-paned windows. Since it would cost too much money to completely replace the old windows, they were sealed shut and the double-paned windows were installed on the inside.

“The Teaching and Helping Program trains people to work on existing houses and to learn by doing,” English said. By pairing beginners with experts, he hopes to train people how to make upgrades in their own home.

“There are approximately 175,000 old homes that need to be upgraded,” he said. “We are training the workforce needed to fix these homes.”

Volunteer Jody Mallie, a nurse at the VIPER Institute at the University of Arizona, which does research on venom, agrees. She hopes to do the same to the windows in her home.

“I learn by doing,” she said. “Then I can teach others.”

Valerie Hudson, a volunteer and architectural designer, said she donates her time to the Teaching and Training Program “to give back to the community and to become a better architect.”

Bryan Olson, mentor and owner of O’Bryan Electric LLC, said he has worked on four of these projects.

“It is better to update old homes than knock the house down and build a monstrosity,” he said. “By using existing structures, bringing them up to today’s efficiency instead of building new ones, it keeps materials out of the landfill.”

Schumacher agrees.

“I think it is fabulous,” she said.